Quirky Traditions at Cambridge
Cambridge offers a plethora of weird and quirky traditions that have found their way through time in every corner of this picturesque town. Filled to the brim with anecdotes, humorous stories and astounding discoveries, it definitely counts high on the list of fun things to do in Cambridge for adults and children alike! Let’s take a look at some of the oddest, quirkiest traditions at Cambridge that live on to this day!
The Secret Society of Night Climbers
Imagine coming across a book that details the exploits of students who enjoyed clambering over historic buildings at night! Well, look no further cause we found the perfect one for you right here: “The Night Climbers of Cambridge” . This book was published in the 1930s under the pseudonym “Whipplesnaith” and continues to inspire the Cambridge students to explore!
To give you a glimpse of what the book holds: A fun legend that is recorded is that apparently one evening, a mischievous student decided to adorn the University’s most famous building with a traffic cone he had picked up during a night out! He climbed, unaided, to the top of one of the corner spires and placed the traffic cone right on the top, before shimmying down. In the morning when the college authorities saw it, they were furious to see such a thing atop the beautiful chapel, but they all failed to climb the steep and fragile walls of the building, and had to call a local scaffolding company to come and build a route up the side of the building to retrieve it.
A fun result of such events was that a team of Cambridge engineers created an online app called the “Cambridge Marauders Map” - inspired by the nocturnal mischief that were a part of Harry’s life at Hogwarts - to help out fellow night climbers in their quests.
Let us introduce you next to a race, unlike any, that has become traditional to the students’ lives at Cambridge.
Cardboard Boat Race - Suicide Sunday
This oddity of a tradition is bound to catch your attention, especially if you are a student or a recent graduate! To celebrate the end of their exams each year, students at Cambridge come together in a buzzed celebration on what they fondly like to call the “Suicide Sunday”. While the name of the festival can be a bit misleading, it symbolizes an expression of celebration for the stress of exams that the students manage to survive through!
A quirky tradition of this festival, also a key highlight, is its boat race. It’s no ordinary boat race, as this one requires students to create boats made out of giant cardboard boxes and participate in a rowing competition along the river Cam! The aim of this fun and offbeat race is to make it from Jesus Green to Magdalene Bridge. This being only 0.7 miles, might look easy but as you can imagine, in a state of inebriation many of these boats end up going in a completely different direction, which in our opinion is part of the big fun!
Coming to our next important tradition, care to join us for a royal visit?
King Henry VIII and the wooden leg
Trinity college, unlike other colleges, is famous for a long-lived tradition of pranks from students. As a result there’s a wealth of stories about the pranks that are bound to amuse everyone. Here is one that you will be able to witness if you’re walking around Cambridge! There is a statue of the founder of Trinity college - King Henry VIII - in front of the college. Originally this statue held an orb and sceptre in his hands. However. A while ago, the sceptre was stolen and replaced carefully by a wooden chair leg.
And the good news is: To this day. The statue still holds that chair leg! You can see it for yourself when you visit the college!
Another incident that is highly amusing was when the Mayor of Cambridge received a telegram that told him that the Sultan of Zanzibar wished to visit their city. Interestingly, Sultan Ali bin Hamud was visiting the UK at that time. The next day. he received another telegram from a “Henry Lucas”, saying “The Sultan of Zanzibar would arrive at Cambridge, for a brief visit.”
The mayor was ‘determined’ to honour the guest and replied to the telegram saying that a carriage would be waiting for them. That evening, 5 men arrived purporting to be from Zanzibar with their interpreter, Henry Lucas. They explained that the Sultan could not make it, and had sent his uncle, Prince Mukasa Ali, in his place. The Mayor made the best of it and gave them a thorough tour of the sights of Cambridge after which the group had to urgently rush to the station, to change and be back in time to the college!
Talking about Cambridge’s quirkiest traditions would be incomplete without looking at the Drinking traditions at Cambridge!
Pennying
There are a bunch of drinking traditions that are unique to each college in Cambridge. For instance, at Gonville & Caius College. a tradition that has become a part of its students’ rite of passage is ‘Pennying’. If a person puts a penny in your drink, you MUST down that drink. However - they have their own set of rules - one may only penny another if they have an alcohol drink themselves. But these rules just make the fire burn brighter!
Another version of Pennying is an “engineer’s penny” where the pennies are bent so that they can fit atop a wine bottle. But BEWARE, there is a risk with the bent pennies, if you are found with one, you would have to down the entire bottle!
Another game and one that you would want to indulge in, is a game of 5p, wherein - a 5p is placed in your desert. If you find it, you MUST eat the entire desert. BUT, with no hands!
And Cambridge could not have enough drinking traditions. Hold on to your hats for the next one!
Kiss and Tell
This is an exciting tradition followed by The King's College ‘drinking society’ that goes by the name of the Chetwynd. As a part of their traditional induction ritual, the students are supposed to climb the fountain and kiss the founder's statue on the lips! The statue on the top of a fountain in King's College front courtyard - The statue of its founder King Henry VI. If the inductee is also a member of the college’s Pre-Prandial Society, they are usually required to plant a kiss in an inebriated state. Surely a challenge worth taking (or a story worth recounting later)! What do you think?
And finally, we arrive at the last, and slimiest tradition on this list!
The Ely Eel Festival of Cambridgeshire
This one is a much more recent ‘slippery slope’ tradition that has found its way into the heart of Cambridge's people. A festival that takes place annually in May to pay homage to “eels” that have been the main exports of Cambridgeshire since medieval times. As nice as it may sound, the celebrations do become a slimy affair with a host of slippery activities such as eel eating, and stuffed eel throwing competitions! If you’re in the area - come prepared to slip at least once! But that’s where the fun is, right?
If you enjoyed these stories, you might enjoy our walking tours in Cambridge that are studded with such gems of stories!
We also love to hear the stories you write! If you have any, do share with us in the comments below! :)
Till Then!